Withings Pulse O2 keeps tabs on your oxygen levels

Withings has announced a new health band called Pulse O2. It does all of the usual stuff, like monitor steps, heart rate, elevation, distance traveled, sleep habits, and estimates calories burned, but the really cool feature here is the ability to monitor the oxygen level in your blood. That information is estimated from the infrared heart rate monitor, then beamed to your phone through a companion app. The device itself can be mounted in a wrist strap, a clip, or carried around separately.

As promising as this looks, fitness bands are a tough business to get into. Not only is the plenty of competition, but established players like Nike seem to be backing away from the market.

Withings Pulse O2 keeps tabs on your oxygen levels

Damn that's a pretty good price. I'm interested in this data, but the question for them is, why does anyone care? Oh neat my O2 saturation levels are normal just like 99% of people. Who is gonna give a crap? I could see my buddy using this for his clients, as he's a personal trainer.

If all you would ever say is "Oh neat my O2 saturation levels are normal just like 99% of people.", then this product update is not for you. As someone who suffers from sleep apnea, I can see this being extremely useful. If it tracks O2 levels along with pulse during the sleep monitoring and I can bump it against the data from my CPAP, then this will be very helpful in working out my most productive sleep schedule.

I have the 1st Gen Pulse. It does not actually record my pulse while sleeping, even though the wristband has a hole where the sensor is. I believe it uses movement to track sleep state, since the only pulse measurements in my account are when I've manually done it. So don't expect that the new one will measure pulse and O2 while you sleep.

That's rather disappointing to hear. They are really missing out on a large market opportunity by not integrating heart rate and O2 in the sleep monitoring. I understand that it would probably be a larger drain on the battery, but for some people it would be worth having to charge every day or 2 in order to have the extra metrics.

As the father of a child with congenital heart disease (which affects 1 child in every 100) I can see this being incredibly useful depending how accurate the sats monitor is in the lower (less than 85%) ranges. Could potentially save a hospital visit if your child is looking blue and you want a quick reading. The fact that it does bp as well is an added bonus in my eyes.
Just because its no use to you, don't be so quick to write off its uses for others. Even if a person has been asymptomatic they may still be suffering from an undiagnosed heart condition, something that a sats monitor can assist detection with.

I'd like that as I need to check my oxygen levels frequently due to a lung condition. However this would be a waste as I'm in a wheelchair so there is no need to track footsteps. But the heart rate and oxygen aspects I'd be able to take advantage of.

It looks like you have to take the device off and touch the back of it to check O2 and heart rate. I'm using their body analyzer (scale) and wireless blood pressure cuff with my Android phone. They are well made but the connectivity can be a little fiddly. If I have to give up my Fitbit Force at some point, I'd consider the Pulse O2.

I would love to have something like this. However, I want one that would output my data to a local file that I could then transfer to a computer. I don't want data like this to be on someone's website; no matter how secure they think they are.

I am really waiting for one of these watches that can monitor and record atrial fib events. They tend to occur randomly and seldom when a doctor is examining you. Knowing the frequency and the events preceding them would help prescribing the proper cure.

Portions of this page are modifications based on work created and shared by the Android Open Source Project
and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 2.5 Attribution License. AndroidCentral is an independent site
that is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.